Toshiba follows in Nintendo's footsteps in placing a warning on 3D products

Toshiba is issuing a warning for its glasses-free 3D
television about the potential harmful effects of 3D images on young children's
eyes as part of an electronics industry consortium's recommendations.

Toshiba's
warning closely followsNintendo's same warning, which
increased concerns regarding the possible negative effects of 3D images on
children's eyesight. Toshiba made mention of the warning in a press release for
its presentation at theConsumer Electronics Show, which runs
this week from January 6-9.

After releasing 12-inch and 20-inch versions of
the glasses-free 3D television in December, the Japanese company plans to
present 56-inch and 65-inch prototypes of its glasses-free 3D television at the
Consumer Electronics Show. In the press release for this demonstration, Toshiba
said, "due to the possibility of impact on vision development, viewers of 3D
video images should be aged 6 or older."

Toshiba
made the decision toplace
the warning on its products due to an electronics industry group's
recommendations for 3D technology. Yuji Motomura, chief specialist in Toshiba's
TV marketing department, has not released the industry group's name, but said
the company has provided research about eyesight health in regards to 3D
technology. The recommendation is based on whether glasses are used or not for
the 3D experience.

Despite
the new warning, Motomura believes Toshiba will not see any negative
consequences regarding the sales of the glasses-free3D
television. In fact, the company plans to launch a glasses-free 3D model that
is over 40 inches in the fiscal year to March 2012. Specifics on what date,
size or price have not been set yet, but Toshiba did note that it would offer a
screen capable of displaying 2D images at "a resolution four times the
quality of today's high-definition televisions."

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I think you may be correct about the interlacing. Makes sense to me. I kind of remember something about a polarization filter needing to be applied to the actual TV screen for that to work, though (could be wrong).Anyway, a TV that gives you the option to watch 1080p content in 3D or watch 2D content 2160p (i.e. 4K) sounds awesome. Of course, once 3D, 4K content starts appearing, it'll be obsolete :)

Quad HD isn't one of the standard 4k resolutions (the closest being 3996x2160, which is slightly wider at 1.85:1); but would make content scaling easier. Until we have a 4k consumer media standard I don't see it as much more than a gimic though. I think bluray disks would be rather marginal due to the compression level needed. Joe user might not notice as long as it's not any worse than HD streaming; but the videophiles who'd be the first to adopt it are unlikely to be as forgiving of anything less than current blueray quality.

The cabling would also be an issue. HDMI 1.4 is only 2x HD, this would need 4 (2d) or 8x (3d) though at 60 fps. Displayport 1.2 would give 4x bandwidth, but even it would have to drop down to 30/24 FPS to do 3d.

The panel does 10bit color as well, although I'm not sure if that'd need more bandwidth or not. Do DVI/HDMI/DP send 8bit color as 24 or 32 bits/pixel? If the latter then it could be packed in by using the 4th byte (no need for alpha channel data); but it seems unlikely that they'd waste that much bandwidth.

"Game reviewers fought each other to write the most glowing coverage possible for the powerhouse Sony, MS systems. Reviewers flipped coins to see who would review the Nintendo Wii. The losers got stuck with the job." -- Andy Marken